Defendants have important post-trial rights in criminal cases. Many of these are strict deadlines and you must file within the time deadline to protect your rights.

You have 10 days from a conviction to request a new trial. You have 30 days to file an appeal, but you waive your right to appeal if you accept probation before judgment since this strikes the conviction from your record and there is nothing to appeal. An appeal from the District Court to the Circuit Court in a criminal case is de novo which means you get a new trial.

You have 90 days to ask for a modification or reduction of sentence. Thus, if the judge did not give you probation before judgment, you can file a motion asking the court to modify the sentence at a later time. This means that you can file the motion within 90 days and ask the judge to hold it sub curia to give you a chance to comply with the probation order. You can then ask the judge to hold a hearing at a later time. The hearing must take place within five years.

You can also ask the court to modify your probation. This does not change your sentence, but you can ask that your probation be converted from supervised to unsupervised. This can be filed at any time.